Best Michael Bay movie since The Rock

Rating: 8/10 (31 July 2005)

With The Island, I can now forgive Michael Bay for making bad movies with good production but weak scripts like Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys II. The Island has a much better script, it is a shame that the idea was revealed in the trailer or in the introductory description in newspapers or magazines. If viewers watched them first, they would already know who the protagonists are and the suspense in first act of the movie is actually spoiled.
Though not produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, The Island stills look like Michael Bay's previous movies - well made and highly commercial. As in Bay's previous work, there is not much to criticize in terms of the production. The look and feel of the movie is so good that I had been looking forward to this movie since I saw the trailer. The futuristic world in the movie reminds me of that in Minority Report and looks equally good. The cinematography is spectacular.
What I really like is the story, though it is relatively simple. There were quite a few movies which involve clones, but this movie may be the first one which based totally from the point of view of clones themselves. It is a great premise - clones finding out they are just "insurance policies". Though there may be room for more interesting developments, The Island explores the premise well enough given the limited screen time. (The movie's running time is 136 min. and is already longer that the usual 120.) The scripts uses both the differences between the clone and his original (the movie makers even cleverly uses Ewan McGregor's real Scotland accent) and the indistinguishability of them.
The first part of the movie is quite visually different from Bay's previous movies. I thought it was a good new change for Bay and I waited to see how he did with the set. I actually wished the story is based entirely in the futuristic world. But the characters fled and went to L.A. later, the movie went back to Bay's previous style - helicopters, car chases, gunshots and explosions. Luckily this time the action scenes are more creative and cliff-hanging enough. (I really hate the experience in Bad Boys II, it seemed that the car chases would never end.) Ewan McGregor is good in this movie. I have not seen all his work in US but to me this may be his best film since Trainspotting. (Star Wars wasted him and Natalie Portman.) Surprisingly, Scarlett Johansson is also good in action movies. I saw her in Lost in Translation (2003) and was not impressed. But she performed well in The Island and looks more beautiful than before. As usual, Michael Bay's direction is slick. He is excellent action film director, what he needs is good scripts. He is just no James Cameron, he's not a writer himself and I wish him keep doing what he does best (directing) and not to do the Pearl Harbor attempt again before he gets a good script. On the whole, The Island is good action movie with an interesting story and is Hollywood movie at its best.